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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

What If The Media Has It Backwards About Intolerance?

Oh the whole I like British detective series on TV… it’s a lot more difficult to guess who is guilty right off the bat. But today I saw one that was rather heavy-handed in the attempt to tie Christian opposition towards same sex acts as being homophobic. It was full of bible quoting bigots and main characters alluding to Christian teaching as being hateful—even groups trying to lead Christians with same sex attraction to a life of chastity were labeled as hate groups. It’s as if the producers decided that if they repeat something long enough, people will accept it as true.

That’s about par for TV nowadays. Whatever the genre, the assumption is made that opposition to same-sex acts are rooted in intolerance, and there is no distinguishing between one group and another. Catholic Bishops are put on the same level as the Westboro Baptists. When Pope Francis defended marriage as being between one man and one woman, the media scrambled for a reason to come up for the “rollback” in his views. It’s got to be hard. When you’ve defined Christian teaching on same sex attraction as “hateful,” and you’ve defined the Pope as a wonderful, tolerant guy, it becomes hard to reconcile these portrayals with his teaching reaffirming Catholic teaching.

The dilemma is, they can either:

Recognize that Christians can oppose things as morally wrong without being intolerant, or…

They can conclude that Pope Francis is as hateful as the Westboro Baptists.

I predict that Pope Francis will be thrown to the wolves by the media when it becomes clear they cannot reconcile their distorted version with what he actually says and does.

That’s the problem with the accusation that Christian teaching on sexuality is hate based, whether homophobic or misogynistic. It’s an argument that refuses to consider whether an argument one disagrees with has a valid reason to justify it. It just argues in a circle:

Person 1: Christians are hateful!Person 2: Why do you say they are hateful? Person 1: Because they say homosexuality is morally wrong!Person 2: Why is it wrong to say that?Person 1: Because it is hateful!

It’s simply repeating the same phrase over and over again ad infinitum regardless of the question. It assumes Christianity must be motivated by hatred because they hold this position. There’s never an answer to the “why?” It just is, and if you disagree, you must be motivated by hatred.

So one wonders if the media might be looking in the wrong direction. What if it isn’t the Christians who hate supporters of so-called same sex marriage . . .

. . . What if it’s the supporters of so-called same sex marriage who hate Christians?

If someone accepts the current argument that Christians are homophobic, they can’t escape the reverse accusation, that opponents are Christianophobic. Either abandon the argument or recognize it can be used against the accusers as well.